Alisa W.

Alisa is a sweet and kind eleven-year-old girl who is in 6th grade. She loves to play soccer and volleyball, enjoys science, and has a smile that can light-up an entire room.

Alisa has struggled with her health for her entire life. As a baby, she was constantly battling high fevers, and would be in and out of doctor visits that never seemed to explain why her health was so poor.

Finally, when she was about four-years-old, a specialist discovered that her right kidney was much smaller than her left kidney. Along with that, her left kidney was only functioning at about 70%, due to scar tissue from all the infections she had as a baby. The diagnosis was that Alisa was experiencing kidney disease.

Now, at eleven years of age, Alisa is battling stage 3 chronic kidney disease. Her health is constantly at risk, and she often experiences kidney infections, her bones hurt, she experiences a loss of appetite, and she has been on and off antibiotics her entire life.

Stage 3 kidney disease affects many body functions, the most common complications are high blood pressure, anemia, and bone disease. The key with kidney disease is to prevent it from becoming worse, but in Alisa’s case, it is getting worse daily.

When Alisa was ten-years-old she progressed from stage 1 kidney disease to stage 3 very quickly. At stage 4, doctors and specialist will start discussing a kidney transplant option.
Because of the rate in which Alisa has progressed, doctors are pretty certain that it is just a matter of time before Alisa will experience kidney failure. At that point, she will be placed on dialysis and she will have to prepare for a kidney transplant.

It is a very scary journey to be on and to experience these different stages of kidney disease, but Alisa continues to keep her head up. She still has a great-big smile on her face and she still does her best to get up every day and enjoy being a kid.

Alisa will be adopted as a Sparrow to Eagle Point Middle School. Students at EPMS will work hard to raise money for Alisa through sponsored community service and fundraising projects.